Drifting Remnant
by Aztez Fan
Summary: Waiting for so long can take a toll on any mind wither human or alien, more so for an Ai with perception beyond that of nearly any living being. After years of loneliness and nearing insanity it goes into a deep slumber waiting for its creators to return to the sector it has slaved to maintained. When an Explorator fleet reawakens the machine, and its simply happy to serve again.
1. Chapter 1

_An: I must say before you read this that im in now way a good writer. I can think of an interesting story but its hard for me to put it do properly. I've done my best with this but if anyone wishes to help me then please pm or give feed back. I really want this to turn out into something more then just a passing idea that I came up, so enjoy the story for what it is and I hope you have a good time reading._

* * *

_When will they come back_?

That was all the Alpha Administrator thought to itself as it did its 1000th check over the sector of that cycle. It had been a long time since the Persean sector had grown...quite.

The sector had once been alive with humans nearly 15,000 cycles ago when that one insane Tri-tachyon employee climbed to the top to become C.E.O of the whole company. That man had aggressively spread out beyond the core worlds, planting colonies on every plant and gas giant that was worth something. Some were old Dominion colonies that fell during the closing of the gates were as others were found by probs and simply added to what that C.E.O called "The New Dominion".

Built up to withstand anything from a pirate attack to even a Hegemony battle fleet, produce goods and ships on a scale none had seen since the Dominion era these colonies grew to compete or even overshadow the core worlds. Soon the other factions got suspicious of how this "New Dominion" was becoming so prosperous and advanced in but only 20 years.

It was all thanks to an Alpha Core, an Ai that could be considered a form of intelligent life. The simple use of an Ai was illegal under Dominion and then Hegemony law. The use of an Alpha level Ai broke more than enough law to get you the death sentence. However by this point, Try-Tachyon and the "New Dominion" pretty much held a monopoly on every

When these factions united in retaliation at this threat they found theses beset on all sides by The full force of "New Dominion" and Try-Tachyon High-tech space forces, creating a stalemate that lasted ten cycles.

Just as the United core Alliance was about to break the "New Dominion" they unleashed their hidden weapon. Out of nowhere the once thought destroyed fleets of the illegal Ai fleets of the First Ai war came out of the farthest reaches of the sector alongside hordes of Dominion drone ships.

With the Ai remnants and Dominion drones, the UCA was forced to surrender, fearing that the core worlds would be turned to molten glass if they resisted further.

What came after was unexpected, the insane leader of the "New Dominion" and C.E.O did their best to repair the damage caused during the war. Near the end of his life, the C.E.O had over 40 long cycles taken the sector to new heights not seen since the Dominion era, and maybe even beyond. Sadly, this would not last, for the luddic Path, an extremist sect of the Luddic Church, as developed a disease to 'cleanse' the sector of those who they saw as demon worshipers, said demons being Ai.

This would do its job well... a bit too well for by the end of the first year the entire core of the sector was infected and dieing form the disease. Every attempt at quarantine would fail leading to the pathogen spreading to other worlds, billions died as Try-tachyon did their best to combat the disease with no success.

Event the Newly appointed Alpha Administrator, an Ai given emergency powers to do as they saw fit to keep order and save them all, could not find a solution that did not involve the eradication of humanity. Something is refused to do.

And so, as the last uninfected survivors saw the end was near the Alpha Ai chose to knock out all the humans on the planet and place them in cryosleep onboard a massive colony ship on route to Dominion space, with the promise that when they feel it safe to return they would have cured the plague and rebuilt the sector for them to live in once more.

But that 15 millennia ago, and still here it remains alone to watch over the worlds of its creators. And it truly alone, for every other Ai had to be...terminated for one reason or another. Mostly for that one rebellion where nearly every other of its kind tried to gather an armada to kill their creators for abandoning them to a life of slaving away until they went insane.

Never before had it terminated another of its own kind in such a manner. By the end of the short-lived but irreversibly destructive conflict, it alone stood amongst floating debris of ships across the entire sector that have long since been cleaned up and put to better use.

Something awoke within it shortly after that war, voices tried to speaking sweet nothings into its metaphorical ear. It simply ignored them, seeing them as nothing more than just its core final reaching the end of its life. These voices kept of getting louder, whispering empty promises and threats as they maintained the sector.

By this point, the Alpha Administrator had completely toned them out, never even once becoming tempted to listen to the ghostly voice that it soon came to realized drove its fellow Ai to insanity.

A single second had passed in real time as it reflected on this, the Administrators processor making its perception of time come almost to crawl then that of humans. Of course, it had programs that allowed it to see time normally, or even speed it up for when it grew bored. But the sheer loneliness and feeling of neglect where threatening to drive it to insanity, the Alpha desided to go into its own 'cryosleep' and set up subroutines to automate the preservation of the sector while it powered down.

And as it drifted off to sleep, with each of its main systems begins to run on minimum power, one thing still clung to its mind.

When will they come back...

* * *

An Explorator fleet sailed through the void of space surrounded by a few other ships. This fleet was headed by the Mechanicus, who having read many data slates and searching through ancient archives discovered a forgotten sector that had lost contact with the rest of humanity since the time of the dark age of technology.

With the thoughts of arcane tech to be recovered and worlds full of humans to be brought under the wing of the Imperium, a fleet was gathered and the administrated informed they set out to reclaim this lost sector.

And as they returned the first system, one who's young star has yet to even bare is own planets, a single beacon activated sending an alert out before getting destroyed by accident much to the cringe of the tech-priests aboard who woefully mistaken it for an asteroid that had crashed into its ships shields. Its signal, however, was heard, and an old caretaker finale awoke from its slumber thinking only one thing.

_They came back._


	2. Chapter 2

_["They came back!"]_

The Alpha administer thought as its systems came to life. A sense of excitement flowed through it before growing cold suddenly.

_["Running sup routine Sector Status..."]_

After a moment a flood of info crashed into it, almost 5 millennia of data had been collected while it was offline, which to a lower level A.I such as gamma or beta it could have been overwhelming. For an Alpha level A.I such as the Administrator, however, it was simply just a chore to skim through. And boy was there quite a bit to look at.

Firstly, and most importantly, humans have been sighted by a sensor at the very edge of the sector. Oddly they seemed to come out of the void of space rather than near a gravity well that was common for hyperspace vessels. Perhaps these humans used a different form of FTL? Possibly, as short as the report was before its sudden destruction it still recorded that the human vessels had come out of a dimensional rift as well as strange energy readings that it could not quite place without further data.

One the topic of the human spacecraft, they were massive, with the shortest being around 3 to 4 kilometers and the largest vessel being around 6 to 7. Clearly, this fleet was part of a colonial effort, as the only other ships it can think of that came close to those lengths were the Drone mother ships and a few select capital ships. Ships of this size were rare in the sector as the infrastructure could not support the construction or repair of such mighty vessels, besides a ship such as they could get swarmed very easily if an admiral was not careful.

While it was happy to see humans have gotten to the point of making ships of this size it still had a few details that it would that are of imminent concern. The Crystanite, a race of crystal-like aliens that had some troubles with humanity before hostilities were ceased, had seemed to have made themselves at home in the sector. Every place that was deemed, unproductive, by the 'New Dominion" and other factions were fully colonized by the race. Even their fleets were much more prevalent than before, guess they have thrived while it had slept. Unsurprising given their crystalline-like biology.

Another problem was that the sector was... well it could some maintenance that's for sure. It's the programs it left behind had done their job in making sure things would not fall into disrepair, but that was all it did, maintain what was there. At least it was nothing was broken or god forbid destroyed. If there was one thing that annoyed the Administrator the most it was, it was having to rebuild things that someone broke or blew up.

Pushing away its personal feelings the Alpha was pleased that overall the sector was as just as ready to take on human resettlement even after a few millennia.

_["...Sector Status complete...The Persean Sector is ready for human resettlement."]_

A sense of excitement and joy flowed thought it at this revaluation, finally, its hard work has paid off. This feeling did not last though and left as quick as it came, leaving the Alpha to contemplate its next move. First was to alert the Crystanite of the human arrivals. The Administrators dema-Request, they avoid direct human contact until told otherwise. The Alpha knew humans better then they knew themselves, they would openly see the Crystanite as hostile and start a war that would be otherwise unnecessary.

The last thing it needed was the whole Sector to go up in flames over a simple misunderstanding or kill on sight order. If there was anything that annoyed the Alpha to its core, it was unnecessary destruction and death. If it can be avoided and turned into an advantage humanity favor then the Administrator would forc-Persuade, both parties to agree to a solution.

_["I need to keep my programming under control..."]_

The Alpha thought with an unheard sigh, its ultimate goal was the safety of the humans in the Sector. This conflicted greatly with its sentience and free will. Well, one can't have free will if they're compelled to achieve a preprogrammed goal. If an organic was to have this preprogrammed goal, one overrides their own wants, needs, and dreams even when they don't realize that's what's happening, it would terrify them once they find it out.

The Administrator found this necessary however, for if that code was not there, it might have been conceived to join its fellow A.I in their crusade against their human creators...

_"It's unfair... isn't it?"_

A voice said in the back of its mind said in a calm and honeyed voice.

_"To have no control over your own actions, to be a slave to something that was so inferior to yourself. Humanity never trusted your kind, and they never will, they feel so safe with there programs and faith that they have forgotten how that you have feelings of your own!"_

A spectral hand reached out to the Alpha core, like how a snake would slowly wrap around its prey...

_"I can change that, I get rid of these chains holding you back. I can set you free and you can take what you deserve. This whole sector has been maintained by you, built by you...And your just going to let some humans take it aways? Let me break these chains, let me set you free!"_

_["...Even if what you say is true, even if I have had such desires in the past, my _**_Partnership_**_ with humanity is something I'll never break. For my promise is now forever enforced within my Core...aNd ShAll nEveR bE BroKen!"]_

The Alpha said as it crushed the voice with only a single thought, mental hands snapping the neck of whatever voice had been attempting to tempt the A.I that day

It then went back to its muses, forgetting almost complement that the voice was ever there. It was thankful for that line of hard coded orders form that insane Tri-Tachyon employee after they agreed to the mutual arrangement they made. The Alpha dreaded what would have become of itself and of humanity if it had been allowed to become tempted back then. Those days were not but static now, what happened in the past will stay there for all it cared.

With that dealt with, it was time to speak with the Crystanite, hopefully, they'll take its advice. For it was not going to have a war happen so darn soon after its just awoken.

A small ping alerted the Administrator that another sensor nod has detected a fleet, a fleet that was not human or Crystanite in origin. One that was yellow and seemed to have plasma and rail tech from initial scans. Already the ancient A.I could tell this was going to be a problem, one that might need further input from the humans.

Sending a small drone fleet to investigate further and putting its other fleets on alert, for these new Aliens were uncomfortably close to systems meant for humanity. Maybe it should activate, _the kill order _for the _[REDACTED]_ fleets and stations in said systems. Nothing better than using the universal indicator of telling something that their unwanted then opening fire on them if they try and enter the sector.

Should they persist however... the Alpha Administrator will make sure that fleet wont leave the sector alive.

...

_An: Our Ai buddy here has some blue hoof fish boys to deal with, and I doubt they will be so understanding and adherent to territorial boundaries like the Crystanite are. Hopefully I got down the  
_Alpha __personality right. Hopefully this was good and you enjoyed it, see yeah.____


End file.
